moneyMoney in regard to media is best
described away from its physical attributes. The comprehension of money is generally in its
paper and coin form, or at the very least plastic or electronic accounting
form. Money as a concept, a form of exchange is the relationship
that must be built here. The word money is derived from
the Roman goddess of warning: Moneta from where the word mint is
also derived. (Davies, 89) The Oxford English Dictionary has
as its first definition of money; "Any generally accepted medium of exchange
which enables a society to trade goods without the need for barter; any
objects or tokens regarded as a store of value and used as a medium of
exchange." Historically these accepted forms of money have included
beads, wampum, whales teeth, grain, eggs and gold. Those who used it for
trade gave the value of items used for money. What has to be agreed
upon is the general medium of exchange of the object, "which
is habitually and without hesitation, taken by anybody in exchange for
any commodity." (Wicksell, 17) If eggs or banana leaves were items
of necessity for a culture these items would have a set value in the community
or certain acceptability among people. "The acceptability
of an object [is] the probability that it is accepted in exchange by other
agents at a given price." (Kiyotaki/Wright, 1) This acceptability
or giving the item value and worth to the individuals using the
item in purchase or barter is what makes money. The term value here
is being defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "that amount
of some commodity, medium of exchange, etc. which is considered to be an
equivalent for something else; a fair or adequate equivalent or return." Money
as a medium is given value by the individuals' needs and desires who are
party to the transaction or exchange. If the values of both individuals
are being equally met in the trade then the purchase or trade can be considered
a fair value or a good value or deal based on either parties'
specialized needs being met at the time.

Before the concept of a common currency, man bartered to acquire goods
and services. In ancient Greece money as we understand it today was not
known. "Tripods
or slave girls were given in exchange for cattle, iron or bronze." (Groseclose,
8) It is only as the culture slowly becomes more literate that the concept
of a common coinage and eventual currency develops. The Greeks were the first
to stamp pieces of metal with a symbol of weight for clarification. "It
was when the state stepped in - in the person of the city or temple - and gave
its seal and certification of the weight of these pieces of metal that true
money, as distinct from barter, began..." (Groseclose, 10). In Rome, during
the reign of Augustus Caesar money was in either gold, silver of copper. The
gold coin or aureus was most commonly used followed by the silver denarius and
then the sesterce , which could be of copper or a combination of silver
and bronze. (Groseclose, 33) These coins carried with them a medium of power
as well. Gold was used to pay imperial taxes, fund government offices,
and finance the military. Caesar's image was
pressed upon the gold coins while coins of lesser value could have a variety
of images upon them. Silver was readily used in trade with foreign lands,
while copper was the money of the poor.

McLuhan argues that the emergence of money as currency rather than the commodities
used in trade allowed man to "...extend trading to the whole social complex." (McLuhan,
132.) Through this extension of money in trade, man was also able to
exchange ideas, opinions, and theories while they were exchanging money for
goods and services. A social medium eventually evolved from the emergence
of money as items began to attain a value to society. "Money as a social
medium or extension of an inner wish and motive creates social and spiritual
values..." (McLuhan, 135) Money/Value can be seen in items worn or used
by individuals, they send a message to the rest of society; a Rolls Royce,
a house in the Hamptons, Harry Winston jewelry are examples of money or what
it can acquire. If we follow McLuhan's belief that the content of any
medium is always another, the consideration of money as a medium would beget
conspicuous consumption, platinum cards or the lack there of as a medium as
well. These items show the appearance and effects of money (or poverty)
and send a message to the rest to society.

"That which is for me through the medium of money - that for which
I can pay (i.e., which money can buy) - that am I , the possessor
of the money. The extent of the power of money is the extent of my power. Money's
properties are my properties and essential powers - the properties and powers
of its possessor...I am bad, dishonest unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured,
and therefore so is its possessor. Money is the supreme good, therefore
its possessor is good." (Marx, 103) [See dialectic, material.]

Through the use of money and the value that people put upon the objects it
can acquire, people are able to send a message of what they have or have not
to others. The assumption that someone who
has money worked hard for it or married it or was gifted it also sends
a message; it decides what place the person with money has in the society,
a giver or taker, someone who works hard for their wealth or someone who
just coasts through life without anything or everything. "Since all
media are extensions of ourselves, or translations of some part of us into
various materials, any study of one medium helps us to understand all the
others. Money is no exception." (McLuhan, 139) On a personal level,
money can transmit wealth, power and even beauty; on a larger plain money
can transmit change in business, technology, the arts and education. The
injection of money into any of these fields can expedite or facilitate
their value and scope worldwide. By utilizing money to advance a
business, the arts, technology or personal well being people are allowing
money to work for them as opposed to the usual scenario of having to work
for one's money.

Work is a concept that was in essence created by money and an activity
which helps define who people are in society. Before the concept of money people
did not technically work. They farmed for their food, spun cloth for
their clothes and bartered to get what else was needed. With the advent
of money people began to work for a wage and became specialized in their craft
in order to accumulate more money to lift their standard of living or enable
them to work for themselves instead of working for someone else. Money
created a division of labor by having people specialize in their work and thus
helping to create competition in the marketplace. The market can also
be considered an extension of ourselves as well as an entity on its own. "The "market
system" [as a] rule [is] deceptively simple: each should do what [is] to his
best monetary advantage. In the market system the lure of gain, not the
pull of tradition or the whip of authority, [steers] everyone to his (or her)
task. And yet, although each [is] free to go wherever his acquisitive
nose [directs] him, the interplay of one person against another [results] in
the necessary tasks of society getting done." (Heilbroner, 21) The money
or market as a system added another facet to those who worked within it. Money
in this situation acts as a medium in translating ideas into opportunities. One's
ability to think of new advancements in a field becomes more valuable once
these advancements can be put into play. Through the constant motivation
to realize new ideas in order to get an edge in business, technology, etc.
we are able to work, to live and to "have" more. Society has more technology,
more media, more objects to show the possession of wealth and in order to be
part of the society, one must work for money to take advantage of these advancements. "Modern
economic order...this order is now bound to the technical and economic conditions
of machine production which to-day determine the lives of all individuals who
are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with economic
acquisition, with irresistible force." (Weber, 123)

Money as a medium has evolved from cattle and slaves to currency to even
less cumbersome alternatives. Where once the "representative money...created
new speedy dimensions of credit [and] ...enabled Western industry to blanket
the globe." so now has technology expedited money. (McLuhan, 140-41) The
development of bank cards, credit cards, checks and electronic trading has
removed man from the equation of the transaction by allowing purchases to be
done through other forms of media such as the phone, television and computers. The
evolution of money has at least partially removed currency from the action
of purchase as well, forgoing one medium to another in its advancement. Through
this monetary evolution the new medium of money has become "hotter" in individual
participation, less is involved in the use of money. (McLuhan, 23) Though
McLuhan already considered money a hot medium, in any of its present day forms
one has the ability to have bills paid, paychecks deposited and payments received
into and out of accounts without any effort on his part. Money was once
considered an amplifier or translator in substituting something for another,
money is now be translated and amplified through itself. It has created
other forms of media to represent it. The evolution of trading in the specialized
markets of commodities and stocks has gone from the communication of traders
in a pit of "open out-cry" to a computer screen which simply lists and executes
trades automatically for the owner of the commodity at a specific price. The
medium of money has met the medium of technology and the computer has altered
its physical characteristics, speed and influence in a way man has not seen
since before the use of a common currency. The use of technology to assist
the medium of money in essence removes the human element from the equation.
Where once the movement of "...the principle of grasping and letting go
in an oscillating cycle." was a common occurrence and an act of human involvement
whereby those involved in the transaction where aware of the precise amount
of the transaction, money now has been reduced to a card or check number. (McLuhan,
132) Money as a medium has evolved through the very essence of what it
has created, a desire to specialize, to compete in its market and to advance.